Ascent of Mt. Etna, February, 1832. 3 



the inhabitants, when beholding so tremendous a deluge of fire ad- 

 vancing upon their fair possessions, burying every trace of cultivated 

 fields, of houses, churches and spires, climbing the walls of their 

 city and finally marching over its ruins to invade the sea itself. The 

 sea yields to this novel attack of her enemy under her own fluid form, 

 and volumes of flames and clouds of vapor arise from this new war 

 of elements. Who can figure to himself the sounds and sights and 

 other terrific accompaniments of such an event ; the constant deto- 

 nations of the lava, drowned from time to time, by the louder thunder 

 of the mountain, the lurid canopy of clouds glowing with the fires 

 below, and the most vivid lightnings of heaven, paled by the intenser 

 glare of earth ? Surely, the ignorant peasantry of Etna, may be for- 

 given the superstition which ascribes calamities so dreadful, to the im- 

 mediate agency of the most powerful and terrible beings. 



We almost stumbled upon Nicolosi before we saw it. The hou- 

 ses of the village are low, as if crouching to avoid some impending 

 danger, and it was easy to confound their tiled roofs, with the ground 

 which had been burnt to a similar color in the hotter furnace of the 

 volcano. They are built thus low from fear of earthquakes. v Ab- 

 bate soon guided us into the courtyard of one of these humble ten- 

 ements. Passing through the kitchen we found one large room fur- 

 nished with just enough beds for our party, and such beds too as we 

 could leave without regret, at any hour however early. Mr. Mario 

 Gemmellaro occupied the house adjoining, and we repaired to him for 

 the purpose of getting the keys of the English house and of pur- 

 chasing some of his charts and views of Etna. 



He was ablufF, hearty man, whose broad face and florid complex- 

 ion were the more striking, from their contrast with the pallid features 

 of most of his countrymen. For many years he has been a fear- 

 less observer of the terrific phenomena of Etna, and has made them 

 the subject of several published pamphlets. We sat awhile, and con- 

 versation turning upon the numerous eruptions from the sides of the 

 mountain, he said he had incontestable evidence, that they do not 

 proceed directly from the center of the earth or of the volcanic force 

 by separate tubes, but that the lava arises in the grand central and 

 original funnel, and that by the pressure of the immense column of 

 fluid, a passage is forced in between the conical caps, of which the 

 mountain by repeated eruptions has been gradually formed. By 

 this passage the lava flows down underneath the crust, until it makes 

 or finds openings through it, and by these, discharges itself into the air* 



